


About the Inevitable

by momojuusu



Category: Monsta X (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, M/M, One Shot, xxxHolic - Related
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-17
Updated: 2016-09-17
Packaged: 2018-08-15 13:08:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,055
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8057632
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/momojuusu/pseuds/momojuusu
Summary: Son Hyunwoo ends up in a strange shop and the owner, Lee Minhyuk, is someone who will grant his wish, as long as he can pay an equal price in return.





	About the Inevitable

**Author's Note:**

> A Showhyuk xxxHolic!AU fic. This is bad.

There were two weird things about this place: first, Hyunwoo believed that this building was built in a night because he remembered clearly that yesterday, the ground where the building stood was only an empty, abandoned vacant lot, and second, there were whispers when Hyunwoo walked through the gate.

_“Welcome, Son Hyunwoo.”_

Hyunwoo didn’t know how he could end up in this strange place. The atmosphere was kind of eerie there—Hyunwoo wondered why it didn’t bother him much. He looked around him before landing his eyes back to the place; it was an old building with an old style, not too big, but not that small either. The building seemed to have stood for a long time, but it still looked well-maintained.

In front of the front door, Hyunwoo stopped. He was battling himself, whether he should come in or not. However, before he could find the answer, the double doors opened and two persons appeared.

“Welcome to the _shop_ , Son Hyunwoo,” one of them, a man with short body and cute face—yet his eyes looked somehow evil—greeted.

“Master Lee has been waiting for you,” said the other one; this man wasn’t much taller than the other, but his body was way, way muscular. “Please, come in.”

Hyunwoo cocked his eyebrows; how could these strangers know his name when it was the first time he came to their shop? He was about to open his mouth and threw them questions, but the seemed-to-be employees of the shop had grabbed his both wrists and dragged him inside.

The strong smell of incenses filled his nostril when he stepped into the shop. It was a little bit dim and despite how it looked from the outside, the shop was quite spacious inside. The two employees brought him through a corridor that led to a sliding door—now another aroma blended with the sweet scene of incenses and Hyunwoo was almost sure it was tobacco smell.

Hyunwoo waited in anticipation when the two men released his wrists, one of them, the muscular one, opened the slide door. Smell of incenses and tobacco were getting stronger as Hyunwoo came inside.

And, here he was. A man, a thin, fragile-looking man with extremely pale skin was there, back against the armrest on a black, luxurious sofa, while his legs were resting on the other edge. His hair was platinum blond, so blond it looked almost white. His lips were pinkish, slightly parting as he blew the white smokes he previously inhaled from his pipe. He wore a crimson Japanese _yukata_ , which wasn’t worn properly because Hyunwoo could see how it slid down, dangerously showing the pale skin of the male’s right shoulder (Hyunwoo gulped at the scene).

But, what stunned Hyunwoo more than anything were his eyes. They were blue, Hyunwoo didn’t know what kind of blue was that, but looking at them felt like looking into two small galaxies.

He was beautiful, the most beautiful man Hyunwoo had ever seen in his entire life.

“Son Hyunwoo,” The voice was so soft that Hyunwoo would willingly hear it forever. “What is bringing you here?”

“I don’t know,” Hyunwoo answered honestly. “I don’t know why I’m here. I don’t know how you—along with your employees—could know my name. I hope you can give me a good explanation.”

“Not every question has an answer,” the male said. He got up and put his smoking pipe on the table in front of the sofa before walking closer to Hyunwoo. When Hyunwoo was in his reach, he raised his hand, index finger pointing on Hyunwoo’s right eye. “But, what’s wrong with this, yes, I have the answer.”

Hyunwoo was taken aback. He never told anyone about his right eye—about him slowly losing his right eyesight starting from last week. He didn’t even know what was going on with it, so how could this man know?

“Startled, are you?” The blond laughed lightly. He went back to get his pipe—Hyunwoo spotted a tattoo on the man’s nape, a moth tattoo—and breathed on it deeply. “This place can grant your wish— _I_ can fulfill your wish. But, everything has its price.”

“Wait, wait, wait,” Hyunwoo chimed in before the male could say anything more. “I’d be glad if you could… heal my eye, but can you give me some short explanation of what this place is, why I’m here, and who you are? I think I deserve to know.”

“Curiosity kills the cat, Hyunwoo. The more you know, the more it becomes dangerous,” said the thin male, “but, well, you’re right. You deserve to know _a little bit_ of the situation you’re into.”

Exhaling smokes, the male smiled—the smile looked mysterious, but still as beautiful as ever.

“My name is Lee Minhyuk, a wizard. Those two,” Minhyuk eyed the two men who’d been standing in front of the door along their conversation, “are Hoseok and Kihyun, the spirits that run this place, my _helpers_ , definitely not employees. This,” His arms rose, aligning his shoulders, showing what was his, “is my shop. I will grant your wish, Son Hyunwoo, and you will pay for it.”

 

+

 

“How could you know my name?”

“Not every question has an answer.”

“How could you know I’d be here? Hoseok and Kihyun said you’d been waiting for me, means you knew I’d come.”

“Not every question has an answer.”

“Do you know everything about me or what?”

Minhyuk looked a little annoyed. “I didn’t know you’d be this noisy,” he said.

Hyunwoo scrunched his nose when Minhyuk blew smokes into his face. “You said you will grant my wish,” the tall man spoke up again. “Does that mean you can heal my right eye, giving my sight back?”

“If it’s your wish, yes,” Minhyuk answered.

“Can I know what’s wrong with it?”

“Spiders,”

Hyunwoo stared at Minhyuk, not getting it. “What do you mean?”

“Spider’s curse. Did you make a spider angry before you lost your sight?”

“No, why would I—”

Minhyuk locked his eyes on Hyunwoo when the tan-skinned male seemed to realize something.

“I…” Hyunwoo started, “I destroyed a spider’s web when I was cleaning up my grandfather’s room. He just passed away last month and we wanted to empty the room, so we could use it for something else.”

“What an unlucky person,” Minhyuk’s thumb brushed along Hyunwoo’s right eyelid. “Looks like you’ve dealt with the wrong spider.”

“Wrong spider?” Hyunwoo couldn’t help but chuckle. “Spiders are just… spiders. What’s so wrong with this one?”

“Most of them are pretty cool with people, but this one, I think it was a grumpy spider. Or,” Minhyuk tilted his head, smiling a knowing smile, “it wasn’t just a spider.”

“And, what do you mean by ‘wasn’t just a spider’?”

Minhyuk threw himself onto his black couch, taking a deep breath on his pipe before releasing the smoke. “There are so many creatures you haven’t known yet. Some of them choose to remain unknown, as long as human doesn’t mess with them. But, when they’re angry, you won’t know what they can do to you. They can be harmful.”

“Some of them can take people’s eyesight, I can see that,” Hyunwoo ran his fingers through his black hair as he sat on the chair across from Minhyuk (Hoseok brought it for him from another room because there was nothing he could sit on in the room besides Minhyuk’s couch, and the pretty male didn’t let him). He only did chores, for god’s sake; he had never expected cleaning a spider web would make him slowly half-blind. “Then, what will you do?”

“Heal it,” answered the wizard. “Well, more likely I’ll replace your eye with the new one.”

Minhyuk’s answer was quite surprising. Replacing his eye with the new one didn’t sound that simple, even though Minhyuk said it with a gesture like he’d done it multiple times.

“Replace my eye,” Hyunwoo repeated the words warily, “with whose?”

“Hmm, let’s see…” Minhyuk tapped his finger on his lips. “We can’t use Hoseok’s or Kihyun’s since they’re not even humans. I don’t think we can find someone to give their eye to you, too, so… I think the one and only candidate is me.”

It was such an unpredictable way out. Minhyuk said he would give his right eye to Hyunwoo with, again, a gesture like he’d given his eye to many people before—like it was _nothing._

“Don’t worry about me, Hyunwoo. You will pay for it, anyway!” As someone who would lose his right eye, Minhyuk seemed _too_ cheerful.

“T-Then,” Hyunwoo cleared his throat; he couldn’t help but feel guilty toward Minhyuk—the wizard, _if_ he really was a wizard, was so kind that he lost words and started stuttering. “Then, how should I pay?”

“What’s equal an eyesight?” Minhyuk asked only to receive a lost, stupid look from Hyunwoo. The wizard grinned. “I don’t know, either! So, until we figure it out, you can start being an employee here. Hoseok and Kihyun, as I mentioned before, are the spirits of this shop. They can’t go out and it’s such a burden. Sometimes we run out of soju and I’m the one who should go and buy it. You know, I hate being outside…”

Hyunwoo blinked.

Minhyuk clapped his hands. “I’ll take it as a deal,” he said. “I hope you don’t mind blue eye.”

 

+

 

A week passed after Minhyuk magically—Hyunwoo asked if Minhyuk was going to perform surgery on him, but Minhyuk gave him a look and said, “I’m a wizard, Hyunwoo, not a doctor. Having me performing surgery on you would only bring you to your death bed.”—‘exchanged’ their right eyes, a week passed after Hyunwoo’s right eye slowly turned into blue (the blond said it would take time for his eye to heal), and Hyunwoo had learned quite many things about the wizard.

Minhyuk was noisy. Minhyuk was demanding. Minhyuk was an alcoholic. Minhyuk thought of his smoking pipe as his baby.

And, one thing, Minhyuk loved making Hyunwoo his slave more than anything.

“Hyunwoo! Serve the tea, we have a customer here!”

“Hyunwoo! Clean my room!”

“Hyunwoo! I want beef bowl for dinner!”

“Hyunwoo! Go buy me soju!”

“Hyunwoo! Where’s my soju?”

“Hyunwoo!”

“Hyunwoo!”

“HYUNWOO!”

Hyunwoo slammed the mop that he used to clean the corridor to the wooden floor. “What again, Lee Minhyuk?!”

Minhyuk smiled widely, drunkenly. Even the sun was still high, but this man had finished two bottles of soju that now he was totally drunk. “Sojuuu~”

Hyunwoo didn’t even know how to survive the remaining days—or weeks, or months, or even years—with this alcohol-lover wizard.

 

+

 

The summer sun shone brightly when Hyunwoo came to the shop. Kihyun greeted him with a smile on his face, a glass of iced tea in his hand—Hyunwoo didn’t waste a second to grab the glass and gulp the tea down his throat.

Another day in Minhyuk’s shop, Hyunwoo had felt tired even before he started working. He was a hard-worker, he wasn’t a grumpy type of person when he did chores, but it’d be better if Minhyuk stopped bothering him with his needy requests.

“Hyunwoo, can you help me dry the laundry?” Hoseok came with a basket of laundry right after Hyunwoo put his backpack down. “There’s another basket in the washing room.”

Hyunwoo was about to take the laundry in the washing room at the back of the shop when he spotted Minhyuk stood under the tree in the backyard. Hyunwoo frowned, wondering what Minhyuk was doing there. Minhyuk seemed to talk to someone, but there was no one with him…

The tan male rubbed his right eye and focused his sight on Minhyuk. Taking a second look, now Hyunwoo wasn’t sure if Minhyuk was alone. There was a vague shadow standing in front of Minhyuk, its shape seemed like a kid, maybe a little girl because Hyunwoo somehow could see a ponytail.

Actually, it wasn’t the first time he saw something like that. After receiving Minhyuk’s eye, he started seeing things. It wasn’t more than faint shadows, but he was sure he saw it. Minhyuk said it was normal because Hyunwoo was using his eye, which meant he could see what the ‘eye’ usually could see, in this case was other creatures besides human being.

“Hyunwoo!” Hoseok’s voice snapped Hyunwoo from his thoughts. He broke his eye contact with Minhyuk and the shadow that seemed to talk to the wizard, and continued working on the laundry.

When he was preparing afternoon snack for Minhyuk (and himself; he wouldn’t let Minhyuk eat it alone), the thin male came to the kitchen, whistling cheerful melody. In his hand was a lollipop, Hyunwoo noticed, but it didn’t look like an ordinary lollipop.

It didn’t look like an edible lollipop. It seemed expired for a long time; the color and the smell were unpleasant that Hyunwoo felt like burning it right away.

“Can you not bring something disgusting to the kitchen?” Hyunwoo gave a nasty look when Minhyuk leaned his back against the kitchen counter, hands playing with the expired lollipop. “Where did you get it?”

“Our previous customer gave it to me,” Minhyuk answered, smiling softly, “as a payment.”

Hyunwoo raised one of his eyebrows. “You received a rotten lollipop as a payment,” he said. “That means you can let me pay you with a gum I’ve chewed since last week, right?”

Now was Minhyuk’s turn to give Hyunwoo a nasty look. “That is disgusting,” The wizard gestured as tough he wanted to vomit. “And, no, no way I’d let you pay me with a gum. Ha, you wish.”

“Then, why did you receive that for the payment? It’s not fair.”

Minhyuk huffed as he crossed his arms in front of his chest. “Our customer was a spirit. She was a little girl, looking for the way ‘home’, so she could meet her mother. She didn’t have anything worth to give as a payment, only this,” Minhyuk showed the lollipop. “Her mother gave it to her before she went and never came back. This was the most important thing to her. Waaay more important than your filthy gum, obviously.”

“Ouch, my gum is offended.”

Minhyuk laughed lightly at it.

Hyunwoo swore he loved how the pale-skinned wizard’s laughter, but of course he wouldn’t let Minhyuk know about it.

Minhyuk almost exited the kitchen when Hyunwoo called him.

“Minhyuk,”

The wizard stopped midway and turned around. He tilted his head when Hyunwoo approached him.

“You’re so hopeless,” Hyunwoo sighed. He realized that Minhyuk’s expression changed into a startled one when he, without warning, started fixing Minhyuk’s _yukata_. “Your shoulder exposed all day, even more when you get drunk. It’s not a proper way to meet our customers, you know.”

Minhyuk looked at Hyunwoo’s face unbelievably, but then a wide grin came across his beautiful face. He laughed after that, before then he called Hoseok once Hyunwoo finished with his clothes.

“Hoseok! Put this lollipop in the treasure chest!”

Hyunwoo couldn’t help but smile slightly as he found Minhyuk humming some cute melody all day after that.

 

+

 

“It’s hot, it’s too hot! Hyunwoo, I want cold beer!”

Hyunwoo was sweeping the corridor when Minhyuk got back home. The wizard went straight to his room, being all grumpy because he couldn’t stand the heat. His sweaty body then slumped onto his favorite couch, not even caring that his _yukata_ was all mess because he kept pulling it to get more air touching his skin.

Minhyuk was out since morning. An old lady came early in the morning and Minhyuk seemed to know that—he woke up earlier than usual, surprising Hyunwoo because normally the wizard wouldn’t wake up before Hyunwoo kicked him off of his bed. They had a conversation in the room Minhyuk had to talk with their customers and left soon after that. It was 1 PM when Minhyuk came back and Hyunwoo knew his peaceful time was over.

“How was the case?” Hyunwoo asked as he put a big glass of cold beer on the table. “How was the old lady?”

“It was fine, everything was fine. She can continue living now,” Minhyuk took the glass and sipped the beer, sighing satisfyingly when the liquor passed through his throat.

“What was her request?” Hyunwoo sat beside Minhyuk, not even flinching when Minhyuk’s head rested on his lap—he’d been used to Minhyuk’s clinginess after almost two weeks working for the wizard.

Minhyuk hummed softly before showing Hyunwoo something that apparently had been held in his hand all the time since he got home. “This,” he said. “She wanted this to be delivered to her deceased husband.”

It was a gold pocket watch. It was old, Hyunwoo was so sure of it, but it was still beautiful.

“Her husband was lingering in their house since the day of his death. She didn’t know why, but then she realized it was because of this watch. It was her first gift for him and looks like he lost it one day, and he couldn’t find it, even until he died. She found this again a couple days ago, so she asked me to deliver this to her husband. Thus, I came to their house, to meet her husband and give this to him.”

“It’s still with you, though, as a payment, I believe.”

“He took the spirit of this watch,” Minhyuk opened the watch and Hyunwoo could see that the watch was no longer ticking. “Everything has its spirit. Once the spirit’s gone, they’ll stop working. It happened to this watch as well. The spirit was taken by her husband, being his train to the afterlife.”

“Doesn’t that mean that this watch is no longer worthwhile?”

Minhyuk looked up at Hyunwoo, smiling as though Hyunwoo was a kid who didn’t understand anything. “The lady’s love for her husband that she put on this watch is the only one that matters,” he answered. He called Kihyun to come and put the pocket watch into the treasure chest in the storage room, along with other payments he had received before stretching his arms and shifted to lie on the side of his body, face pressing against Hyunwoo’s stomach. “You know,” he started again, “I’ve been living for more than a hundred years, keeping this job for a very long time, but how humans sacrificing themselves for those whom they love still amazes me.”

Hyunwoo eyed the wizard, but he kept quiet—only his hand started moving to stroke Minhyuk’s blond hair. His heart beat a bit faster when Minhyuk looked up at him with a tired smile tugging his perfect, pinkish lips.

They stared at each other’s eyes for a while before Minhyuk closed his, and soon enough, Hyunwoo could hear light snores coming from the wizard.

 

+

 

His eye was getting bluer on each day.

Today he was standing in front of the full-length mirror in the storage room—Minhyuk told him to clean the room up a bit, but he didn’t want Hyunwoo to touch anything in that room, which was such a burden because the room was full with stuff Minhyuk got for the payment—and he realized that his right eye was bluer. His sight was getting better as well these past two weeks and he was so thankful of that.

“Why did you take so long to clean up this room?”

Hyunwoo broke his eye contact with his own reflection in the mirror when Minhyuk came. “You might want to try to clean up this room and feel the frustration,” he half-grunted. “You have _too_ small room and _too_ many things here, and you told me not to touch _anything_. I almost broke that vase and stepped on this painting in five minutes after I entered this room.”

“It’s because you’re _too_ big that you touched almost everything with your body,” said Minhyuk, but his eyes never left the mirror. “Did you touch it?”

“Touch what?”

“This mirror,”

“Yeah,” Hyunwoo showed the feather duster in his hand, “with this.”

The black-haired guy didn’t know why Minhyuk seemed relieved with his answer.

“This mirror can show you your future,” the wizard continued. His thin, long fingers touched the surface of the mirror carefully, something that Hyunwoo assumed as slight of sadness coming across his face. “I received it from a collector. He didn’t want this mirror; fate wasn’t something he wanted to see.”

“So, I can see my fate only by touching this mirror?” Hyunwoo reached out, but before he could touch the cold surface of the mirror, Minhyuk grabbed his hand, bringing it away.

“You’d better not,” Minhyuk’s voice was shaken a bit when he spoke and Hyunwoo didn’t know why. “Fate isn’t a pleasant thing to see. Waiting for it to happen is the best thing we can do.”

Hyunwoo locked his eyes on Minhyuk, studying his face, his expression. Minhyuk seemed like he lost his usual cheerful mood; he looked pretty serious with what he had said and Hyunwoo wasn’t used to it.

Intertwining the wizard’s fingers, he pulled the hand to bring Minhyuk closer, so he could take a better look at the pretty male. “But, you touched it—you saw your fate,” he said, almost whispering. “Was it unpleasant?”

“Maybe,”

Silence came between them for an uncomfortable while. Minhyuk put his hands on the mirror surface once again while Hyunwoo could only stare at their reflections.

It was when he noticed that the blue in Minhyuk’s right eye was ruined by a stain of brown color.

Their right eyes were slowly exchanging their colors and guilt attacked Hyunwoo’s heart, piercing into him like a thousand needles.

He was about to open his mouth to say something about it when Hoseok came, telling Minhyuk to get ready because their customer would come soon.

 

+

 

“How are you?”

It was a lazy Sunday in the middle of summer when Minhyuk asked him. The beautiful male was lying on his bed, a hand fan in one hand and his smoking pipe in the other one. The room, as usual, smelled like sweet incenses blended with the smokes from his pipe, which was almost intolerable for Hyunwoo at first, though he seemed fine with it after almost three weeks working for Minhyuk.

“We meet every day; you know exactly how I am,” Hyunwoo said nonchalantly as he poured soju into a small cup.

“How are the spirits you see with your right eye? Have you been getting used to it?”

Hyunwoo thought of it for a little while. He couldn’t say he was used to it—this was his first experience seeing spirits and it was still shocking him when a spirit suddenly came to him, as though it wanted to communicate with him. So far he could only see them; their voices still weren’t more than faint murmurs, though nowadays he felt like he could hear them better.

“Not really,” answered the tall guy. “I’m used to having them around, but sometimes it scares me when they try to talk to me. Not all of them look… good, you know.”

Minhyuk got up from his bed and walked toward Hyunwoo, who sat on the couch. Hyunwoo shifted away to give space to Minhyuk when the wizard plopped beside him, shaking his head when Minhyuk happily gulped down the soju in the cup in one go.

“As a person who never had an experience with spirits before, you seem cool. That’s a good step,” Minhyuk sighed after the soju wetted his throat. “You don’t faint like most of the others, you do well.”

Hyunwoo really wanted to tell Minhyuk that he almost fainted when a seem-to-be bad spirit approached him in front of the shop, if only Kihyun didn’t come and shoo away the spirit with one glare (god knows how he did it), but he chose not to.

“What about you?” Hyunwoo asked back while pouring the third cup of soju for Minhyuk. “You slowly lose your right eyesight; you’re not able to see spirit with it soon, right?”

“I still have the left one,” replied the lithe-figured male calmly. “Besides, my hearing is better than anyone. I don’t need to see them clearly to fulfill their wishes.”

Hyunwoo held his breath when the half-drunk Minhyuk reached for his cheek and caressed it softly. Minhyuk moved closer that now their faces were only some inches apart, and Hyunwoo could smell the strong scent of the soju from the wizard—funny, he swore he smelled something like spring coming along the soju aroma; it was only faint scent, but he liked it.

“You don’t have to worry about me,” whispered the wizard. “You don’t have to feel guilty. We have a deal, you’re going to pay for what I did to you—we’re equal.”

It was a lazy Sunday in the middle of summer when their lips first met in a short, gentle peck. Hyunwoo didn’t know who started it, maybe Minhyuk, maybe him, or maybe they both wanted the same.

It was a lazy Sunday in the middle of summer when Hyunwoo found out the spring scent he smelled earlier came from Minhyuk.

 

+

 

“Though you said we’re equal, I still have this urge to apologize. I’m sorry for ruining your beautiful eye.”

Minhyuk shifted in Hyunwoo’s arms as the sunkiss-skinned male carried him to his room; he was too drunk that he couldn’t even walk for a meter away.

“I told you it’s not a problem,” Soft gaze landed on Hyunwoo when he laid Minhyuk on the wizard’s bed. Soft smile appeared as the next words were uttered, “I’m getting fond of this eye, anyway.”

Hyunwoo pulled the blanket up to Minhyuk’s chest, guilt still clear on his face. He didn’t say anything more, though, only his body moved like it had its own soul as he bended to kiss the right eyelid of the wizard’s softly.

“Have a nice dream,” he whispered.

“Hyunwoo,”

Hyunwoo’s hand stopped from reaching for the door. He didn’t turn around, only waited for Minhyuk to continue.

“Do you really think my eye is beautiful?”

Hyunwoo hummed.

 

+

 

Old songs were played in the shop all day and Hyunwoo blamed the gramophone they received from a customer today. Minhyuk seemed so happy that he took all the vinyl records he had out and played them one by one.

And, even until tonight, the songs kept playing non-stop. Minhyuk had had his second bottle of soju, getting drunk more and more in every shot, and Hyunwoo wondered why the wizard’s voice still sounded like heaven even in his drunken state.

“It feels good, doesn’t it?” Minhyuk grinned—they were sitting on the back porch with Hoseok and Kihyun playing with fireworks. “I love old songs. I can drink while listening to these old songs forever.”

“You need to run this shop,” said Hyunwoo, “you can’t get drunk forever.”

“You need to relax,” slurred the wizard. “Here, my child. You need at least a shot of this delicious soju.”

It wasn’t like Hyunwoo didn’t drink at all. Sometimes he went to drink with his college friends, even though it wasn’t too often—not anymore because he should work after college at Minhyuk’s shop—but when it came to Minhyuk, he needed to completely sober to take care of the pale guy after, and it wouldn’t happen if he got as drunk as the wizard.

“No, you can have it all, I’ll take this watermelon,” Hyunwoo pushed the cup Minhyuk gave to him away and took a slice of watermelon instead. “Summer, fireworks, and watermelon—everything’s perfect.”

“You sound so old,” Minhyuk’s laughter filled the tan male’s hearing. The blond then rested his head on Hyunwoo’s shoulder, continuing singing the song that was recently played.

Hyunwoo kept on his spot when Minhyuk joined Hoseok and Kihyun playing with fireworks. After a while, he noticed that he was smiling at how childlike Minhyuk was. The wizard said that he’d been living for more than a hundred years, but he still acted like a teenager. It was cute, though, and Hyunwoo didn’t mind it—he only minded Minhyuk’s alcoholic behavior and how lazy he was during hot days that he needed Hyunwoo to do everything for him.

It was when the song turned into the calm one—the song was one kind that would be played at a wedding ceremony—when Minhyuk came to him in cheerful steps, pulling his both wrists and said, “Shall we dance?”

It wasn’t a dance—well, not really. Practically, Minhyuk only stepped on his feet, let him do the steps like a father taught his daughter how to dance. Minhyuk’s body was light that it didn’t bother Hyunwoo, but their position was a great distraction.

Everything about Minhyuk wasn’t the same after the short peck that the wizard gave to him a couple weeks ago, and being in this close distance with the beautiful male—Minhyuk had his thin arms around Hyunwoo’s neck while Hyunwoo’s big palms were on the wizard’s hips, keeping him steady—made his heart raced crazily.

In this close distance, Hyunwoo could see almost everything. He could see how Minhyuk’s blue eye sparkling. He could see how those pretty lips tugging into a wide smile. He could see how the almost-white hair dancing with the summer breeze. He could see how the pale skin glowing under the moonlight.

Minhyuk looked like an angel, _Hyunwoo’s_ angel.

The song had ended, but neither of them intended to be parted. Minhyuk kept his feet on Hyunwoo’s, and Hyunwoo kept swaying their bodies together, as though the music was still there. He brought Minhyuk closer, letting the wizard put his cheek on his shoulder. They didn’t say anything, but Hyunwoo knew that Minhyuk had the same thoughts as him: they didn’t need words at the moment.

Hyunwoo could feel it, that their hearts were beating in sync, their breathings were in the same rhyme. It was like they were one entity, and Hyunwoo was more than grateful to have this moment with Minhyuk.

He shuddered slightly when Minhyuk pressed his lips against his neck, feeling the wizard smiling when he buried his nose into the blond strands.

“Take me to my room,” whispered Minhyuk.

Hyunwoo could only comply.

 

+

 

“When I was still young, forever seemed exciting. Forever made me feel powerful. Forever was everything I’d wish for.”

Hyunwoo’s hand stopped from fanning Minhyuk—he spent half an hour to complain about Minhyuk being too lazy even only to fan himself; he wasn’t a slave, he swore he’d sue the wizard for treating him like one (Minhyuk scoffed at that).

“But,” the wizard continued, “the older I got, the more I realized that I don’t want it. Living like this for more than a hundred years, dedicating myself for this shop, letting those whom I love eventually leave me…”

There was loneliness in that voice. Hyunwoo looked down at the wizard, whose head was on his lap, but Minhyuk refused to meet his eyes.

“It’s like stuck in a never-ending loop of time. There will always be tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow to the point I get sick of it,” Minhyuk heaved a heavy sigh. “In the end, forever exhausts me. Forever, Hyunwoo, is a curse.”

“You want to escape.”

The wizard didn’t answer.

 

+

 

When Hyunwoo came back from meeting with the shop customer, Minhyuk was sleeping. Usually, he would rarely see Minhyuk sleeping when the night was about to come because dinner would be ready anytime, but it wasn’t a weird sight nowadays.

Actually, it had been almost two weeks when Minhyuk ordered him here and there to meet their customers and help them solve their problems. Sometimes Minhyuk would come along if the place could be reached by walking, but more than that, all tasks were given to Hyunwoo.

Just like today, Hyunwoo entered the shop only to find Hoseok and Kihyun sitting in front of Minhyuk’s room. They got up once they saw Hyunwoo and approached him, but every movement they did carefully, as though they would wake Minhyuk up if they moved recklessly.

“Is he still sleeping?” Hyunwoo asked.

“Yes. Master has been sleeping all day,” Hoseok was the one answering him while Kihyun took the paper bag with some ingredients for tonight’s dinner (he stopped by to buy something for dinner after the meeting).

Hyunwoo let Hoseok follow Kihyun to the kitchen. He, himself, went straight to Minhyuk’s room, sliding the door carefully, preventing himself from making too loud noises. He sighed when he saw Minhyuk in his bed, curling in the way that made him look more fragile.

Sitting on the edge of the bed, Hyunwoo gently pushed the white bangs that fell covering the wizard’s eyes. His touch caused Minhyuk to frown, but he wasn’t awake. In his sleep, Minhyuk leaned closer into Hyunwoo’s hand, making the tan guy smile.

“You sleep a lot nowadays,” muttered Hyunwoo. “Start getting tired of your lazy life, hmm?”

It was getting dark outside and Hyunwoo knew he should have the food ready before Minhyuk woke up, but seeing how peaceful Minhyuk was when he slept, Hyunwoo decided that a couple more minutes staying with the wizard would be fine. So, there he was, sitting on Minhyuk’s bed with his hand caressing Minhyuk’s soft strands.

It didn’t take long until Minhyuk opened his eyes.

“You’re home,” The wizard’s voice sounded hoarse and sleepy. He yawned before shifting to rest his head on Hyunwoo’s lap.

“Did I wake you up?” asked Hyunwoo.

“No, my stomach did,” Minhyuk mumbled drowsily. “What’s for dinner?”

“Does beef stew sound good?”

The wizard hummed in agreement, but he stayed still in his position, not letting Hyunwoo go just yet. Hyunwoo didn’t refuse when Minhyuk pulled him down to snuggle, though. Minhyuk made him lie down on the bed before curling up against his bigger body, and he could only hug that lithe frame back.

“I thought you were hungry,” Hyunwoo whispered as Minhyuk shifted even closer to him.

“I am,” said the wizard, “but let’s just lie down for a bit.”

Minhyuk’s hands on his chest were warm. Hyunwoo took one of them and kissed the thin fingers softly; they were warm.

 

+

 

“Why moth?”

Hyunwoo’s lips moved from the small spot behind Minhyuk’s ear down to his nape, where the moth tattoo belonged to. He stopped there, kissing it repeatedly.

“Moths always find their way following the moonlight, maybe until someday they find their way back to the moon,” Minhyuk tilted his head, exposing more of the flawless skin of his neck, as though he wanted Hyunwoo to mark him there.

(Maybe he really did because Hyunwoo spotted the wizard smiling out of the corner of his eye when he left a small, purplish mark on the milky skin.)

“I was the lost moth, never able to find the moonlight. I was living in the darkness, waiting for someone to save me.”

The thick lips now trailed down to the narrow shoulder, where the _yukata_ had slid down. “Have you found the moonlight now?”

Thin, fragile fingers touched Hyunwoo’s cheek, pulling the handsome face closer effortlessly. Under the moonlight that came through the open window, their eyes met.

_“You are my moonlight, Son Hyunwoo. You are my way to go back to the moon. You are the one going to give me a ride to the place where I belong to.”_

Minhyuk’s eyes, one was blue, sparkling like a tiny, beautiful galaxy, and the other one was black, like a black hole ready to suck someone’s soul.

_It’s black, not dark brown as usual. It’s black, and it’s sad._

 

+

 

It felt like waking up from a nightmare to another nightmare.

When Hyunwoo came, he knew something wasn’t right. Hoseok and Kihyun didn’t greet him; he couldn’t find them anywhere. The shop was quiet, _too_ quiet, but the quietness screamed something: _Lee Minhyuk._

Hyunwoo stepped carefully as he searched for the wizard from one room to another. He didn’t rush his movement; he didn’t call the name that was stuck in his throat. There were strong feelings that made him refuse to know what was happening, refuse to know where Minhyuk was, refuse to accept something that he had to face.

The last room was Minhyuk’s room. Hyunwoo was standing in front of Minhyuk’s room, but his hands didn’t even move to open the door. He was afraid, afraid more than anything, even though he knew Minhyuk was inside, even though he knew he wanted to see Minhyuk.

_It feels like waking up from a nightmare to another nightmare._

_“Son Hyunwoo,”_

Hyunwoo held his breath. It was Minhyuk’s voice, and Minhyuk’s voice sounded _too_ calm.

The room still strongly smelled like incenses and tobacco when he entered, just like the first time he forcedly came to this place. There was the black, luxurious sofa, where a thin man was lying down; his skin was even paler than how it used to be. He was wearing the crimson _yukata_ that he wore when they first met.

Everything was almost the same as the first time Hyunwoo saw Minhyuk. Minhyuk was still the prettiest male he’d ever seen with a smile as beautiful as a peach flower. Minhyuk was still the man with eyes sparkling naughtily, but cutely at the same time.

The different was now Minhyuk seemed to be dying. His blue eye was still sparkling, but the other one was dead. The white of the eye had gone, leaving pitch black color staining the once mesmerizing eye. The pitch black color took over Minhyuk’s eye, and it was spreading over, like deadly roots creeping on the skin around the eye, and it would keep spreading until Minhyuk disappeared.

Hyunwoo couldn’t even ask why. He wasn’t brave to ask why, what was the reason behind this all. _He knew, though. Somehow he knew._

“Did you remember,” Minhyuk started when Hyunwoo knelt on the floor beside him, “you asked me why did you come here, how could I know you’d come, how could I know about your eye.”

“I coming here was coincidence,” Hyunwoo replied with a shaken voice. His hand, that now rose to stroke Minhyuk’s white strands, was shaking too. “I shouldn’t have come here. This is all because of me, isn’t it? Because of my eyes you took and changed with yours.”

Minhyuk’s hands were still warm when they grabbed Hyunwoo’s, bringing the bigger one onto the wizard’s chest.

“There is no such thing as coincidence in this world,” The smile on Minhyuk’s lips was weak, but it showed wisdom that no humans could do. _“There is only the inevitable.”_

The wizard’s heartbeat went slower under his palm.

“I’ve known your arrival in this shop since a long, long time ago. I’ve been waiting for you because you are my _inevitable_ one—the moonlight that will show me the way to go home, and the only one that will take my inheritance— _this shop_ ,” Minhyuk paused only to chuckle, “you’re going to be the owner of this shop, replacing me; that is the payment for your right, cursed eye.”

“Even in this situation, you’re still cruel,” Hyunwoo said that, but a small smile appeared on his face. He raised his hand to caress Minhyuk’s cheek gently, wanting to feel the soft skin for the last time. “You took my eye—you took _the curse_ from me, so you can leave this place.”

“You are my time,” The wizard placed his hand on top of Hyunwoo’s, “you are my way, you are the wings for me to reach the moon. Everything is—”

“Inevitable.”

Minhyuk’s eyes turned into two small crescents as he smiled wider. “You’re a fast learner,” he said before the wide smile on his face turned into the thin one. “It’s time.”

The wizard palmed Hyunwoo’s normal eye, and, slowly, his own blue eye turned into the dark brown color, the color of Hyunwoo’s eyes used to be.

_“With this, I take my payment.”_

There was wind blowing between them along with blinding rays, and when Hyunwoo got his vision back, Minhyuk was gone. What was left was a moth; it was delicately floating to the open window, and gone into dust once the moonlight touched its wings.

_It’s like waking up from a nightmare to something weird… like those weird dreams you get when you catch a fever._

“Master Son,” A familiar voice called him, and then he realized that Hoseok and Kihyun had been back. Hoseok, the one calling him, handed out something to him.

He couldn’t help but let his laughter slip through his lips when he saw what it was.

Minhyuk’s smoking pipe.

Hyunwoo wasn’t a smoker; he never liked it. He didn’t know why he lit the pipe up and breathed into it, letting the smokes enter his body. He kept coughing at his first trials, but he never stopped.

He didn’t know why.

_Maybe it’s just inevitable._

 

+

 

“Master Son, we have a customer!”

It was spring. Hyunwoo didn’t know how many springs had come and gone, but it didn’t really feel like a long time.

_I still remember how he looked like, how he smelled like, how warm he was. It feels like yesterday._

“Master Son!”

“I’m coming, I’m coming.”

He dragged his feet to the room where he usually met his customers. Hoseok and Kihyun opened the double sliding doors for him when he reached the front door of the room, and he flashed a thankful smile to the shop spirits.

“Bring us tea, Kihyun,” he said as he stepped into the room.

The customer’s eyes were on him, looking all confused. He smiled, knowing how it felt—knowing all the questions the customer had for him.

_But, some questions are better left to be answered when the time has come… because everything has its own time, everything is…_

“I’m sorry if I sound rude, but what place is this? I’m—I’m not sure why I’m here, and… who are you?”

_… Inevitable._

“My name is Son Hyunwoo, and this is my shop. I will grant your wish for an equal price in return. Now, what are you wishing for?”

 

 

* * *

 

_“There is no such thing as coincidence in this world. There is only the inevitable.”_

**Ichihara Yuuko**

**Author's Note:**

> I hope this wasn’t too confusing for you who never read/watch xxxHolic. Some parts might or might not lack of explanations, but I don’t know if I could add more details without losing the mood, so I decided not to. So, if there’s something you don’t understand, please drop it on the comment box below! I’d gladly explain everything you need.
> 
> Last but not least, thank you for reading this! I’m sorry that it didn’t end well (I don’t think it was a bad ending, though... at least Hyunwoo was happy... well, kind of), I hope it didn’t disappoint you. Again, thank you very much!


End file.
